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Compulsory Heterosexuality

Compulsory Heterosexuality refers to the idea that heterosexuality, as a default sexual orientation, can be adopted by people regardless of their personal sexual preferences. Compulsory means “mandatory”, “obligatory”, or “required”. A person’s heterosexuality is generally assumed until proven otherwise; by both one’s self and those around her. Those who have never “thought about” or questioned their heterosexual orientation may be accused of “compulsory heterosexuality”. Since heterosexuality is integral to the way a society is organized, it becomes a naturalized “learned behavior”. When a woman decides she is a lesbian (if this “deciding” even occurs), she is rejecting the ‘compulsion’ toward a heterosexual lifestyle and orientation. But Compulsory Heterosexuality makes coming out difficult, because it keeps women from being able to separate their “true sexual desires” from their “compulsions toward heterosexualty”. This is a concept that stems from the question of whether or not “anyone” could be a lesbian, and what agency an individual has over her sexual choices and desires.

As far as I know, this term was made popular by Adrienne Rich in her essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, which is a critique of heterosexuality as an institution and it’s negative affects on women. Rich suggests that heterosexuality keeps women from actualizing their full sexual and emotional capacities by denying them a sexual way of being that is unrelated to male pleasure.

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This is a great definition. I think I’d even extend it to say that compulsory heterosexuality shapes our existence even if we reject heterosexuality. It is one of the founding structures of social life, in our historical context. Butler’s article seems to point to ways in which we are conditioned and produced by those norms even if we fashion a different, queer, relationship to them.

[…] Compulsory heterosexuality sexualizes masculine dominance over women. This incident in Martinsville, IN serves to also underscore the violent characteristics of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic, or idealized, masculinity, changes over time and is never completely attainable. Hegemonic masculinity is normative, or An ideal standard or model. Prescriptive (what one should do or ought to be) rather than descriptive (what actually is). Normative is not the same as normal or average, rather it is a privileged way of interpreting the world in which we live. […]

[…] Adults rule in society. There is very little room for adolescent leadership, but some of these young people may be perfectly prepared to take on more of the world than they are given. It is the compulsory secondary education that enforces the same period of development and subordination to adults for every teen. The only exception to this is something that we call “legal emancipation.” The term in itself shows that adolescents are not free until they are 18. Even then, society makes it almost compulsory once again for students to get a college degree, which sometimes means growing up, but for many it means extended adolescence. This idea of compulsory adolescence perhaps relates to Adrienne Rich’s idea of compulsory heterosexuality. […]

[…] wrote “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” over 30 years ago, “compulsory heterosexuality” is alive and well. Despite the contemporary more popular theoretical view that sexuality is […]

[…] be it by accident or design. Not being straight is something you have to make a statement of. Compulsory heterosexuality is so pervasive and normalised that getting people to believe that that’s not what you are and […]

[…] about sex impacts the way we think and feel about sex. Things like the sexual double standard and compulsory heterosexuality impact how we think about others and ourselves in terms of our gender or […]